28 Mar A Sense of Direction – Katie Posner

Raised on the outskirts of London and trained as an actor, director Katie Posner was in her late twenties when she discovered that she actually preferred directing to performing. She staged several student shows as a drama teacher, before directing her first professional production –  The Government Inspector with Marlowe’s Jam Theatre Company – in 2005.

From 2009 to 2017, she was an associate director with York-based touring company Pilot Theatre, then, in 2019, she became joint artistic director of new writing company Paines Plough, alongside Charlotte Bennett. Recently, she co-directed Chinonyerem Odimba’s Black Love, and staged Phoebe Eclair-Powell’s Really Big and Really Loud, and Chris Bush’s Hungry with the touring, new-writing company.

Posner’s production of anonymous playwright Ahlam’s You Bury Me – a six-handed coming-of-age drama set in Cairo in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, and the inaugural winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting – is running at Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre until late April.

How did you become a director?

Oh, it is a long story. I trained as an actor, then started teaching as I needed the money. I got a job in a college teaching drama A-level and started staging shows with students. A guy I was working with, the producer Mark Hartley, kept telling me I was a director, not an actor. He really encouraged me, and when we both decided to re-enter the industry, he gave me my first directing job.

Who or what was the biggest help along the way?

Mark, definitely. He saw something in me that I didn’t really know existed.

What work are you most proud of?

Each one felt like a unique challenge. They were all scary and beautiful and joyful. One show I am particularly proud of is a version of David Harrower’s Blackbird I did with George Costigan and Charlie Covell in York in 2011. It is such a knotty, extraordinary play. I just loved it. I’m proud of some of the big, site-specific shows I’ve made, too. The Mold Riots in 2019 had a cast of 200. That was special.

What work are you least proud of?

There have been shows where I didn’t have the time to dramaturg them properly, and everything was a bit rushed. There have been times when I’ve taken on too much and been running up and down the country feeling incredibly stressed. When you let that stress take you out of the rehearsal room, when you are not fully absorbed in the process, that results in the work not being as strong.

Who – or what – is your biggest theatrical influence?

I love Sally Cookson and Phyllida Lloyd. I like things that are collaborative and metaphorical and playful and that really include the audience, but without spoon-feeding them. I hope my work has that inclusivity, too.

Is there a show that you really want to stage?

I love new plays. I love having the writer in the room. I would also love to do another Shakespeare, too. I would love to do a big, messy show at The Globe. I’m less interested in having a traditional take on a classic. I’m more interested in messing about with stuff – but not in a wanky way.

What is your financial situation?

As a freelancer, it was really hard. It half killed me. The amount of shows you have to take on just to make a decent living is really challenging, especially when your husband is an actor and you have a small child. You have to supplement your income with all sorts of other projects. I did a lot of teaching. It is a precarious journey. Nowadays, though, with Paines Plough, I have a full-time job.

What do you enjoy most about directing?

As an artistic director, the best bit of the job is being able to give opportunities to other people. That is a brilliant, exciting thing to do. As a director, it is being in a room, creating a show with other artists.

What are your frustrations with directing?

As an artistic director, my biggest frustration is money. We are constantly having to be nimble and clever with the budget that we’ve got. As an artist, it is the self-doubt.

Is there a city of country that you have not worked in yet, but would love to?

New York. And Scotland. I love Edinburgh and I love Glasgow. I feel very at home in Scotland. Scotland is my happy place.

What fills you with dread about the future of theatre?

I am worried about the future of new writing. Venues have a real fear about getting bums on seats, and they are warier about taking risks on new writing. As a new writing company, that makes us nervous. It feels like we are being inched out. Touring feels very precarious, too. And we are losing so many brilliant artists because they cannot financially survive in this industry. It is all frightening.

What gives you hope for the future of theatre?

We will always need stories. That makes me hopeful. And when I go somewhere like VAULT Festival, and see a really bold, exciting piece of work being performed to a rammed audience, that makes me hopeful, too.

What are you working on at the moment?

You Bury Me is on tour, and it runs at the Orange Tree Theatre from March 27 until April 22. And we have not announced our next set of shows yet, but Paines Plough will be returning to the Edinburgh Fringe this August with a really thrilling, exciting, brilliant programme of new work.

ENDS

Fergus Morgan is SDUKs resident blogger.

Image credit – Rebecca Need-Menear

Image: Katie Posner in You Bury Me rehearsals